Welcome back to Bed Bug Awareness Week! This week’s topic: bed bug information and bed bug inspection. If you’re looking for our last post, here’s our Introduction to Bed Bug Awareness Week. Now, let’s get deeper into the world of bed bugs!
We’ve written a TON of bed bug topical posts in the past, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without our good friends at the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). Here’s a quick run-down of some of the more important (or maybe interesting) tidbits that we’ve gathered over the years here at Rose:
BED BUG FACTS!
- Despite being named for their habit of feeding on humans in bed, they can be found pretty much everywhere in a wide variety of locations and items, especially live in cracks in furniture or in any type of textile where they can hide.
- Depending on lifecycle stage, bed bugs can range from translucent yellowish (newly hatched) to rusty brown (adult stages) and even bright red after a blood meal. Unfed, bed bugs are flat and oval, yellow to golden brown with a dark squiggle on their abdomen (which is their digestive system).
- Their diet is primarily human blood, but they have been known to feed on other warm-blooded creatures.
- Bed Bugs have made a big comeback recently due to adapting to overuse of the more harmful chemicals of the past. The chemicals used today are safer for humans, and thus not as effective.
- Commonly identified by the many red, itchy bites they leave during their nocturnal snack runs.
- According to 2013 research conducted by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) and the University of Kentucky, almost 100% of pest control companies have treated for bed bugs in the past year, compared to just 25% in 2000.
- Bed bugs are very hardy, easily transporting from one place to another by hitchhiking on items you set down.
- Very heavily infested areas may have a characteristically sweet odor to them.
- Bed bugs can live on for up to 12 months without feeding.
Sounds pretty unpleasant, right? Thankfully along with our info we have another awesome infographic from NPMA! This one is geared toward bed big vigilance while traveling.
BED BUG INSPECTION
Now that it’s (finally!) summer, that means vacations! Hotels! Road trips! But… what happens when you get home? You don’t want to have accidentally brought a terribly unwelcome hitchhiker with you in your backpack, do you? Bed begs are extremely easy to miss if you don’t know where to check and what to look for.
Stay tuned to the Rost Pest Blog for more Bed Bug Awareness Week information, but don’t let that stop you from applying what you’ve already learned or contacting the pros if necessary.
Follow the tips laid out above, but if you’re worried that might have brought some hangers-on with you it’s best to contact the professionals. Two sets of eyes are always better than one, and your friends at Rose Pest are always here to help. Our professionally-trained staff will make sure you’re sleeping soundly whether you’re at home or away, and that’s the best kind of sleep.
